Francis Makes The Most Of His College Experience

BRIDGEWATER, Va. - The first week of the
college year is a hectic time for all students. Moving into the
dorms, buying books, registering for classes and finally going to
those classes can sometimes seem overwhelming.

Those that are student-athletes have even more to focus on as
the season-openers are just a week away.

For Eagles senior football player Joel Francis the first week
also included answering numerous emails as well as preparing a
speech for opening convocation. Those duties come along with being
student body president, a position Francis assumed at the beginning
of the school year.

“I spent a lot of time answering emails from fellow
students dealing with questions they needed answered,”
Francis said of the opening week of school. “It really
wasn’t that much extra for me to handle.”

Francis has handled his career at Bridgewater with aplomb. A
solid student, an all-conference caliber football player and now
the leader of the student body, Francis has made sure to make the
most of his college experience.

“Sometimes you have those kids who are principled without
being prudish and that’s Joel,” Bridgewater College
head coach Michael Clark said. “To be that way as a college
senior is his strongest characteristic. Joel appeals to a lot of
people in our locker room and he appeals to a lot of people on
campus.”

Joel Francis is certainly more than just a football player, but
football has played a major role in molding the defensive tackle
into the person he has become.

Francis tackles his schoolwork and extra-curricular activities
with the same intensity he displays when bringing down an opposing
quarterback.

“For me, football is intertwined with everything I
do,” Francis said. “I study my game play the same way I
would study for a test. I’m a leader on the football field
and now I have been entrusted to lead the student body. A lot of
what I have learned, I have learned because of football.”

When Francis arrived at Bridgewater, becoming student body
president wasn’t on the radar screen. In fact, in high
school, student government really didn’t seem that
interesting.

“In high school it was pretty much just books and
sports,” Francis said. “When I looked at student
government, I really didn’t see that much to do and
didn’t see much of a chance to lead. I stayed on that same
trend my freshman year, focusing on football and
academics.”

Things changed when a fellow student encouraged Francis to
become an orientation leader. That was the first step in becoming
involved with campus leadership.

“I remembered what my orientation experience was like and
I felt like becoming an orientation leader was a job I could do and
do well. It would give me the opportunity to help and counsel
students going through the orientation process,” Francis
said.

As an orientation leader, Francis got to know Dr. William
Miracle, Dean of Students at the College. At the end of
Francis’s sophomore year, Miracle approached Francis to see
if he would be interested in being one of the student
representatives on the College’s Strategic Planning
Board.

"Joel has always had a clarity of focus," Miracle said. "He is
able to differentiate between what is important and what's not
important. I really thought Joel would give us good, solid feedback
as a member of the Strategic Planning Committee and that's just
what he did. Sometimes students can get bogged down in the minutia,
but Joel was able to focus on the bigger picture."

“That was an amazing experience,” said Francis of
his opportunity to serve on the Strategic Planning Committee.
“To be involved in the process of planning and shaping the
College’s future was a great opportunity. I worked with the
administration, the faculty and the Board of Trustees. Not every
college student has those networking opportunities.”

As a junior, Francis was elected to the Student Senate and later
in that year decided to make a run at the position of student body
president. “I am a confident person and I thought I could do
a good job of leading the student body.”

"I think when a teammate, or a classmate for that matter, sees
that you live like you talk, that has a great deal of influence,"
Miracle said. "I think that's what you see in Joel. He's a positive
role model. He walks the walk."

As it turned out, football helped Francis win the election for
student body preoident.

“When I decided to run for student body president I
rallied the troops,” said Francis. “My teammates really
got behind me. Without football, I probably would not have
won.”

With that busy opening week of college is in the past, Francis
knows that the weeks to come will be filled with football, studies
and student government activities. For the next 11 weeks, however,
football may get a little extra attention from the BC senior.

“I don’t have any regrets about my college
experience,” Francis said before pausing to backtrack.
“I guess I do have one regret so far and that’s the
fact that I haven’t played on a team that’s won an ODAC
Championship. But we have a chance to fix that this year.

“We have a young team, but we have a good group of leaders
on this team to show the way. I think this season is going to be
similar to last year in that we are going to play a lot of close
games. Last year, if the ball bounced one way we won, if it bounced
the other way we got beat and if it bounced a little further the
other way we could get beat pretty bad. We’ve played in a lot
of close games and we have guys who know what it takes to win those
games.”

When his final year at Bridgewater comes to an end, Francis will
be able to move on, knowing he made the most of his college
experience.

“In the recruiting process, I tell each kid that with what
you are being asked to invest it has to be about more than just
football,” Clark said. “For Joel, it has been about
more than football, but I think he would agree that football has
given him a high return.”

Francis remembers one piece of advice from his parents as he
prepared for his first year at Bridgewater.